ML - Vegas Magazine

illustration by daniel o'leary True STory Our state's histOry is sO dramatic that even a bit Of gentle myth-busting can't diminish nevada's mystique. by scott dickensheets Nevada has long been a state happy to skirt the fact s a nd pr int t he legend of it s or ig in stor y. A s st ate a rchiv ist Guy Rocha notes, plent y of teachers have told their students—wrongly, as it happens—that President Lincoln pulled Nevada into the union, 150 years ago this month, because he required it s minera l wea lt h to ba nk roll his half of the Civil War. The truth, of course, is that he needed a place to build a secret military base where he could stash the aliens. It's astonishing how little people know about our history. While it's great that the hoopla surrounding this 150th anniversary is boosting everyone's his- torical awareness, it will be even better if it dispels a few myths, too. If just one person comes away from the yearlong rollout of coffee-table books, panel talks, and branded merchandise (sesqui- centennia l chocolates! bourbon! logowea r!) realizing that no workers are buried in the cement of Hoover Dam, it will all have been worth it. It's not the tenacious but low-stakes fables I'm thinking about here—Wyatt Earp once worked in Goldfield or Nevada had the first elevator west of the Mississippi. (He didn't. We didn't.) It's the history of Las Vegas proper, so dramatically recast in bog us lore. Ta ke mobster Bugsy Siegel a s t he city's founding father. Romanticized as a suave gangster who could see the future—that oh-so- alluring combination of danger and vision that st ill powers t he Vega s myst ique — Siegel wa s rea lly a cr im ina l who took over a n a lready underway casino project in the mid-'40s (histori- cal shout-out to first owner Billy Wilkerson!) and mismanaged it into an early grave. As for rampant lawlessness, it's worth noting that Nevada went dry a year before Prohibition became federal law. "It might be just a little unfair to g ive Las Vegas t he 'Sin Cit y' moniker when Da lla s a nd New Orlea ns a nd, f ra nk ly, even Chicago were all doing the same things on an even bigger scale," says historian Geoff Schumacher, content director of the Mob Museum. Still, in Vegas, a city brimming with ersatz his- tories—from the themed architecture to the life story just told to you by a stranger at the bar—you can see why myths have the upper hand. I mean, L incoln rea lly steered Nevada into t he union because he thought he'd need our support to get re-elected. Garden-variety political calculation— could a founding na r rat ive be less excit ing? On t he ot her ha nd, Brave president needs our resources to save a troubled nation? I'm surprised Cirque hasn't built a show around that by now. Maybe a little embellishment isn't a bad thing. But on this sesquicentennial, let's not forget that Nevada's actual history is rich enough in rogues, eccentrics, and historical novelty that it doesn't need an aggressive upsell. Jeans were invented here, for goodness' sake. True story: It wasn't until 1982 that Nevada's borders, as described in the state Constitution, were altered to include Clark County and Las Vegas. And 34 percent of us voted against it. You just can't make this stuff up. V 136  vegasmagazine.com Parting shot

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